Lois and I did the course last year (had to go all the way to Jacksonville, NC to do it! ) and rate it very highly. The assessor/student ratio is 1 to 2 and, even though we got a civilian assessor due to one of the motor officer's being injured and another tied up with town duties that day, we were very impressed as all the civilians that are in the program have to pass the same basic MC Motor Officer course in Raleigh as the guys that wear the badge. This course is modeled on one that is run very successfully in the UK and is only offered in 4 states (IL, MD, VA, SC) over here.

This program if free, too. Yes, FREE! It's funded by a special grant from the Governor's Highway Safety Program in NC and also some federal money from the NHTSA but, it's a trial program and it might turn into a fee based thing in the future.

It's an all day thing, rain or shine, with a break for lunch. Classroom and a 1 hour riding session in the morning then more class room after lunch followed by a 2 hr riding session then an oral critique at the end. There is no pass/fail and no written test or other junk...this is ONLY aimed at helping you to be a better rider in a mixed street enviroment. You also will get a written followup/rating/critique by email a few weeks later. Freebies at the end include a baseball cap, hi-viz vest and a nice certificate of completion (suitable for framing, of course ). And it doesn't matter if you've been riding for 6 months or 60 yrs, I guarantee you'll get something out of it.

If you have a minute, look around their website and click on some of the gallery's and the vid and you'll get a little flavor of what the program entails. It's not a 'formal' thing at all and was really just a genuinely good (almost laid-back, really) motorcycle experience for me and I think Lois enjoyed it, too.

Besides, how often do you get to hang out with a Motor Officer all day?

Pete C

Last edited by lois c on Sun May 06, 2012 12:42 pm; edited 3 times in total

_________________If the only thing your passing is scenery, get in the right lane!

Oh yeah, one more thing... If you watch the short vid on their site, at the end six more related ones will come up, click the BikeSafe UK by the metpolice - the one in the upper right hand corner - slide it over to about the 5 min mark for a good example of what riding in London entails ( with some very cool commentary by the assessor as he follows his man through typical UK city traffic) .